DonorsChoose.org is a non-profit web site that allows people to help fund classrooms across the United States. Teachers submit proposals for their classroom needs, including the amount needed to reach their goals. Random people search the website, read the proposals, find one that particularly speaks to them, and donate! Simple as that. It is personal, too. Everyone who donates can expect at least a thank-you note from the classes they choose to donate to. DonorsChoose.org is holding a Bloggers Challenge for the month of October.

Six Apart offered [on LiveJournal, Vox, Movable Type, and TypePad] to anyone who emailed them by September 30th, a free $30 gift certificate to be used for donation to the cause. But the list of participants in Blogger Challenge does not end there. This is obviously a really important cause, and Americans are stepping up to the challenge.

I received my $30 gift certificate today via e-mail, and it went right to the ESL preschoolers at Buffalo Public School #45, an international school that is 93% low income. DonorsChoose is really making a difference. As of today, $166,530 has been donated to 9,450 schools in New York State (not including NYC) alone!